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Lye Bath Precautions
- Thread starter Rob_W
- Start date
Dan Farmer
Member
Lye loves oils. It likes to turn oils into soap. Including the oils of your skin. It will burn. Rubber gloves and face shield are highly recommended. A bucket of vinegar-laced water nearby isn't a bad precaution as well.
To give a more realistic perspective, let's assume you're never going to plunge your arm into your recommended strength lye solution and just leave it there. Let's say you have a momentary lapse of diligence and reach into the bath to retrieve the sunglasses that just fell out of your shirt pocket. If you immediately rinse your hand and arm in fresh water, you will probably feel no ill effects other than a mildly dry sensation to your skin. If you piddle around for a minute or so and don't rinse off your hand, your skin may begin to feel itchy, more dry, and become somewhat reddened like a mild sunburn. If you don't rinse it off after that, well... A vinegar solution is not necessary to neutralize the recommended strength solution to a point it is no longer caustic; dilution with adequate water is sufficient.
Nothing in the foregoing should be taken to suggest that lye, especially undiluted or at a dilution stronger than recommended for CI cleaning, is not dangerous and should not be handled with utmost care and certainly not without eye protection.
Nothing in the foregoing should be taken to suggest that lye, especially undiluted or at a dilution stronger than recommended for CI cleaning, is not dangerous and should not be handled with utmost care and certainly not without eye protection.
The man knows his stuff. I've had lye on my hands pretty often, and yeah, I may be getting a little careless but i've had no effects from it.
You don't want it in your eyes, had one drop hit the white and it turned red almost immediately. Flush immediately but again, no lasting damage.
This is the resident "Kamikaze" lye user
Lye in your eye...ouch!
Pretty cautious with my eyes now, always have glasses on. It's surprising how much lye can splash with that little glup of letting the iron slip into the lye bath.
Still need to be cautious.
I often use thin surgical gloves to retrieve pieces out of my lye bath. Sometimes the gloves will tear. I usually notice it, take my gloves off, and rinse my hands. One time, I did not notice the small tear, and it started burning. I rinsed it immediately with no ill effects.
I agree with all the other posters, make sure to not get it in your eye, otherwise you will be fine.
Bruce
I agree with all the other posters, make sure to not get it in your eye, otherwise you will be fine.
Bruce
This is the sort of thing that keeps people like me around. I'm not a collector, but enjoy the process of restoration of the few items that cross my path. But mostly, I stay for the people.
To the original question, I've not used lye in the bulk form, only Easy Off. But I've never had an issue with getting any on me.
Just sayin'.
Are you trying to tell us you don't occasionally spray yourself down with Easy Off and then go run through the sprinklers? Gee, I guess I better quit doing it. I thought it was the best way to degrease myself. Besides, the neighbors would be happy. . .